Thought Piece #1

 

There is one main issue that Frank Vatrano could run into by selling his number. The issue that can arise is whether he owns the rights to the number. In this case, there are three entities that could own the rights to the number and have legitimate arguments. Those entities would be the player, the team, or the league. The player has the case that he has ownership of the number because the number has become a part of his identity. Since individuals own their identity a case could be made that the player has the right to give a piece of his identity to others thus, an argument can be made that he can sell his number to another player. The team's claim would be that since they give the player the platform in order to gain notoriety, they have ownership of the number. There is also the fact that at the begging of the career there was no notoriety to the number therefore there was no value of the number to the player. The player could have had any number at that time he could suggest to the team which one he prefers but in the end, the team assigns the number to the player. The final claim would be to the league.  The league could have a claim to the number because they set the standard to which the players are identified. In many cases, they chose to identify players by their last name and their number. However, instead of using an alphanumeric system, they could opt to use roman numerals, shapes, or any other symbols, ad even no symbols at all. Since the league is the one who sets the standard to which players are identified by then they also have a claim to the player's number and whether he can sell that number.

Complications may ensue from three parties having legitimate claims to the fact that they have the rights to the number. The player may feel as though this is his identifier as a player in the sport. This is a part of his identity and his personal brand therefore it is his. However, despite this time and again players (even those with the most iconic numbers) have changed their numbers i.e. Lebron James, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. This shows that their personal identity is not solely tied to a certain number and therefore, their claim to being able to own the number is illegitimate and they have no legal right to sell their number. This leaves only the team and the league to have legitimate claims to be able to have the rights to the number.

            The second party who may have a claim to the rights to the number is the team. The team’s claim is that without the team the player would not need the number or have that as their identifier. The team’s belief would be that they are in control of all of the logos, jersey designs, and all intellectual properties of the team. This is in fact true that they do have the freedom to change aspects of their team’s identity which may include the number. However, these changes must be within the guidelines of the league. Players can't have any number they want such as retired numbers or banned numbers by the league. The team is ultimately a funnel to get the sport which is the property of the league to the masses and into their specific location. This is made evident to the title given to team owners as “franchise owners”.

In this case, it seems as if the league has the right to the number and can be the only one who can legally determine whether a number can be changed. The league sets the uniform standards for the league and thus has the right to who has what numbers, symbols, or anything else that is on the jerseys. The team cannot make this same claim because they are simply a franchise owner, they can only set the rules and enforce the rules within their own team as long as they do not contradict the rules and guidelines set forth by the league. An example of this would be a McDonalds franchise. If Mcdonald's franchise wanted to make any changes to their restaurant even if it was on an individual level, then it would ultimately need clearance from the McDonalds corporation. This is the same concept when it comes to the NHL and any changes that any team or individual wants to make. The league has the rights to all of the teams and all identifiers, concepts or entities of the team. The team an individual can benefit from these properties the same way a Mcdonald's franchise owner can receive profits from owning a location. However, the owner of all the rights to McDonalds and the NHL are owned by those entities alone.

In conclusion, Frank Vatrano has no legal right to sell his number because he doesn’t own it. The true owner of the number is the league, they own the number since they control all uniform regulations of the game. This gives them the power to determine whether players even use numbers. Although a number can be a part of a player’s identity this can be changed as we have seen time and again i.e. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Lebron James. These changes in the past had to be processed and approved by the league as some numbers are also banned or retired by the leagues. Frank Vatrano has no legal right to sell his number and can only request for the number to be transferred. This doesn’t prohibit his ability to receive benefits for requesting the transfer and stipulations can be made to make sure the request will go through to receive benefits. Essentially, this is a “sale” of his jersey. This can affect many players in the future as it may set a precedent on the transfer of numbers and can affect players who want numbers of other players who have retired but their jersey has not been retired. This opens the door to them selling their numbers and can affect whether a player wants to retire their number because they may feel they can profit more from selling the number. Despite this, the sale is for the request being sent and stipulations can be put from payments upon request approval. In the end, there is no legal right for a sale of his number and only the league can decide if a transfer of a number can occur.

Aaron Conrad Perez Rodriguez